A Marine from Connecticut – who carried the flag at Ronald Reagan’s funeral and then begged to see action in Iraq – was killed Sunday doing what he wanted to do most – fight for his country.

Lance Cpl. Lawrence Philippon, 22, died from small-arms fire while battling guerrillas along the Syrian border, Marines sources said yesterday.

News of his death had a devastating impact back home, where his parents, Ray and Leesa Philippon of West Hartford, were celebrating their 24th anniversary.

Thoughts at the family’s Mother’s Day dinner were centered on Iraq, even before two Marines appeared at the door around 9 p.m. bearing the gut-wrenching news.

“We felt sorry for all 1,600 mothers who had lost someone,” said Ray Philippon of the dinner conversation. “We didn’t know at the time we were part of that group.”

The former high school hockey goalie and oldest of three siblings made his commitment to serve once the war started.

“After we went into Iraq, he felt very strongly about that cause,” said Philippon, who saw his son sign up two months after the March 2003 invasion. “It had to be the Marines. It couldn’t be any other service. I think he had to test himself.”

He joined the Marine Corps Color Guard – and even ended up carrying the flag at Reagan’s funeral last June.

But that honor wasn’t enough for Philippon, who filled out his 6-foot-4 frame to 220 pounds once he joined the military.

“He’d been begging them for a while [to go],” Philippon said. “Even though he enjoyed the color guard, he really wanted to be in Iraq. That is where it is all happening . . . He wasn’t afraid. He did what he had to do.”

Philippon’s fiancée, Olivia Lawrence, who was to marry the Leatherneck Dec. 30, was heartbroken.

“I never thought in any dream that I would first of all be marrying someone in the military, let alone sending someone off to war [who] just didn’t come back,” said Lawrence, who heard from her beau every day, sometimes twice.

“He’d have people wake him up in the middle of the night so he could call Olivia,” said his dad, an Army veteran.

Ray Philippon said he foresaw his son’s death.

“For the last couple of weeks I’ve been having visions of this occurring,” he said. “Not anything specific. But something had been telling me. Maybe it was God’s way of preparing us. Every time I had it, I’d say a prayer and try to put it out of my mind.”

Philippon, who arrived in Iraq in late February, died in a four-hour firefight near Qaim, the last city on the Iraqi side of the border.

The family has no details since the military considers that information classified until at least the operation is over.

Philippon, who had taken to sleeping on rooftops in recent weeks, had two years to go in the military. He probably would have gravitated to the state police after getting out, his dad said. The family last heard from the beefy warrior two weeks ago when he said “he wouldn’t be communicating” for a while.